Romance

With the end of May, so ends the Kingsley Amis Reading Month as well. Four books in all, one a ghost story of sorts, another a speculative fiction set inside a parallel universe, and two love stories. Every one of these novels was peopled with horrific, tawdry, distasteful people, save for Jenny Bunn, the intrepid school teacher heroine of Take a Girl Like You; you see, Jenny is hard not to like because, for one thing, she is an incredible beauty, and aware of it not one whit! As a result, her sojourn at a rooming house near her elementary school becomes peopled by dubious men, and a few women as well, who are drawn to her flame like the proverbial moth. In some respects, this novel is a Fifties version of a Nick Hornby narrative, only darker and heavier, because the misogynists and hustlers who people its pages are a vile and vicious lot. An oddity for me, reading about pre-Beatles England, were the musical references scattered over its pages: Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Mel Torme, Dave Brubeck. There are more than a few chapters describing Jenny's classrooms, seemingly peopled by miniature eight-year old versions of, say, Donald Trump. And then there is Jenny's romantic interest in one Patrick Standish, who in Amis's regard was probably the most loathsome character he ever created. So, I will conclude, on that, with Larry's Law: "When a woman has a choice to make between a good guy and a grifter, nine times out of ten, place your bet on the grifter." Will such a fate befall our down-to-earth Jenny? Read it to see! ( )

I love Kingsley Amis, but this book is vile. His sexism -- simmering under the surface in much of his writing -- is on full display here, culminating in what today we would call a date rape. Skip this and read The Old Devils...or just read Lucky Jim again. ( )

It is difficult to judge this book. It was written in 1960 and, by the standards of the day, was a racy little comedy. Sadly, time is not kind to racy little comedies and this is more of a history lesson of innocence than an amusing read. I can see that in its day, it would have been quite daring - I can even see where the humour would have been: its a bit like watching Charlie Chaplin, one knows that one should admire the timing and the inventiveness, but somehow, the humour has seeped away over the years.

The interesting thing that books like this show is how amazingly straight forward life was. The box in the corner has educated us all into the art of subterfuge and we are so much more devious: no more intelligent, and probably more likely to buy a pup but that darned box has told us what it is "cool" to do.

A reasonably interesting romp in naivety, but little else. ( )

Funny at the time